New Microsoft Visual Studio Features Show Importance Of Windows Azure, Developing For Connected Devices

5 years

Microsoft showed the new Visual Studio 2013 at its Build developer conference today. The new integrated development environment (IDE) features include performance tools for power consumption, asynchronous calls for debugging and an overall focus on the connected app.

The new tools in Visual Studio, now available for download, are meant to appeal to mobile developers. One of the main features is a view of how the app in development will affect battery life, measuring power consumption down to the milliwatt. Visual Studio also includes features to help developers monitors memory usage.

It’s evident that Windows Azure is playing a far broader role at Microsoft, which shows in how the company is leveraging it in the new Visual Studio. For instance it now enables developers to synchronize over multiple different devices.

Also, for the first time, Visual Studio connects with Windows Azure Mobile Services, which has received particular attention in recent months from Microsoft. Azure provides Visual Studio with better portability. Developers can now set up multiple versions of their IDE in the cloud. Those settings can then be downloaded to multiple computers. There is also a dovetail with the new universal availability of Active Directory, which makes it far easier for users to use Visual Studio in the Azure environment.

More news about Azure is on tap for tomorrow at Build. It’s clear that Azure has growing importance at Microsoft. The focus is necessary, considering the strong push underway by Google, Red Hat, Joyent and a host of others that are banking on attracting the developer community. Adding Azure to Visual Studio helps Microsoft’s cause by making it easier to develop apps. It’s a sign that we should see more efforts like this in the months ahead.